An Unprecedented Trove of Ancient Wooden Tools Uncovered at a Rock Shelter in Spain Shows Neanderthals Were Skilled Woodworkers

When you think of Neanderthal technology, you probably envision stone tools. But a trove of ancient wooden artifacts uncovered in Spain is giving an unprecedented look at how our extinct relatives used other resources. Researchers examined hundreds of wooden objects—including imprints left by decayed ones—at a site called Abric Romaní, about 30 miles west of Barcelona.

The array of relics further show that Neanderthals were skilled woodworkers who used the material to create trays, plates, weapons and other items. The findings, described in a study published in the journal Science Advances on October 7, add to a growing body of evidence that demonstrates Neanderthals weren’t as simple as previously believed. Gema Chacón, an archaeologist at the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES-CERCA) in Spain, to Andrew Curry at Science.

But wood is an incredibly versatile material.” Other evidence of ancient woodworking has been found at sites in Italy and Germany, but these were mostly digging tools for foraging and weapons for hunting found on muddy lake shores. Abric Romaní in Spain, on the other hand, has a diversity of wooden objects because it was a living space. The roughly 3,200-square-foot shelter had fireplaces, trash pits, sleeping areas and more.

In 1948, amateur archaeologists found a 125,000-year-old straight-tusked elephant skeleton with a nearly eight-foot-long wooden stick between its ribs at a German site called Lehringen. But because of poor documentation of the discovery, some experts argued the wooden object was a digging stick. In March, researchers reported that cut marks on the elephant’s bones suggest that the tool was, indeed, a spear—and that it further shows Neanderthals hunted big game.

Since the 1980s, researchers have been uncovering charred wooden remains and impressions left behind by some that decomposed at the Spanish site. Periodic flooding probably helped prevent these objects from quickly rotting, per Science. Minerals in the water hardened into travertine, a type of limestone, trapping the wooden artifacts within and preserving them, or at least their outlines.

In the new study, Vallverdú, Chacón and their colleagues documented 597 wooden artifacts from 16 different archaeological layers, which were dated to between 40,000 and 62,000 years old. The researchers poured resin into some of the imprints to create casts of the original objects. They also scanned some artifacts to make 3D models.